Beautifully Imperfect
by Tsubasa Kya
Summary: Slowly she is losing everything. She and her brother become the property of SohATech, an android research and development company owned by Nokugami, Haru. She struggles to regain a sense of self as her brother continues to fall apart.
1. What bad dreams you have

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: Sorry, I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho people. I'm just a fan. _

_This is a different version to Sunset's Shrink._

Chapter one: What bad dreams you have

"And how long have you been having these dreams?" Kali Onigumo asked. She was a Psychiatrist, her patient a girl named Kikyou Motshuria. Kikyou looked strickingly like Kali's daughter. The two looked completely identical except for their eyes; her daughter had dark midnight eyes, while Kikyou had chocolate brown. Both had long hair cut to their waist, the tan skin of a Japanese, and stood five feet six inches in height.

Kali was fourty-six, married to the heir to the Onigumo estates, and had two children. She had graduated college young, high school even younger, and formed her office on her deceased grandfather's estates after her mother died in an accident. She did miss her mother, but never let this infect her work. She enjoyed what she did, which was an honest plus.

Kali had started the office when she graduated college and received the shrine, before then had been an assistant in the Psyche ward at the hospital in Sunset. Her son Souta was seventeen, ridiculously rebellious like his sister, and ten months the younger "twin" to Kagome. They weren't really twins, but they sure did act that way.Kali was glad that the private school she had her children enrolled in didn't graduate until age twenty-one. It gave her more time to spend with them before they rolled away to college.

Kagome was looking for an apartment already for her college years. She would have to reserve it early, and Kali was glad her daughter was going to college, even for an unstable career like writing. Souta intended to specialize in banking. While Kagome struggled in mathematics, Souta was great at it. They were like opposing sides of the spectrum, yet were of the same being, all at once.

Kikyou, on the other hand, was a new patient. During the customary pleasantries, Kali had learned that Kikyou was working her way toward being an android technician. When Kali had inquired as to why that particular profession, Kikyou smiled and said, "It intrigues me." That had ended that subject, so Kali had turned elsewhere.

Kikyou was almost nineteen, ten months older than Kagome was. They bore no relation at all, which made the similarities in their looks seem rather drastic. Kikyou had moved in with her grandmother at a young age along with her younger sister, but the shocking thing that Kali saw was the haunted look in Kikyou's eyes. She had seen many looks, but not one so deeply etched into the lines of a young girl such as Kikyou.

Kikyou's parents had, according to Kikyou's file, killed themselves in front of their children. Kali suspected the reason Kikyou had the nightmares she was having was because of that fact. Children haunted by death usually suffered from emotional trauma. If such was the case, Kali already knew what plan of action she would take. If not, she would have to find out more.

"The nightmares," Kikyou claimed, "are always of a man in a black trench coat. He's holding a gun to my head…" The girl's eyes were heavily lidded, though slightly cracked open. She shivered and shrunk towards the side of the divan that was placed nearest the window.

Kali's eyes rose into her eyebrows. "Is the man here now?" she asked quietly, not wanting to frighten Kikyou. If it was suffering emotional trauma, she knew the situation would be delicate. She had to be careful not to frighten her more.

"He… he's standing right in front of me… can't you see him?" Kikyou sounded afraid.

Kali's pen slipped deftly across the paper, taking notes. She didn't need to look at what she was writing anymore. Years of practice had granted she be able to multi-task like that. "I see him, Kikyou." She promised the younger girl, though there was no one in front of her in reality. Kali was the only other person in the room, and she was off to the side. "We need to do something about him, don't we?"

Kikyou nodded. "He's going to shoot Grandmother. And Kaede!" Her eyes shot open and she stared around with a look like she was a deer caught in headlights. She looked guilty, and Kali sorely missed the opportunity. For a moment, Kikyou had been in a state of trance, one of the simplest ways that Kali could have helped her. Her brown eyes locked with Kali's midnight orbs. "I've had the dream for as long as I can remember. I don't remember a night where I don't have the dream."

Kali nodded her understanding, watching Kikyou look again out the window of Kali's office. The room used to be her grandfather's prayer room and bedroom, but Kali had it remodeled to fit her needs. She wouldn't waste the space, even though her grandfather had loved it so much. She was sure he would want her to make use of all her resources. "Do you know who the man in the dream is?"

Kali was sitting comfortably in the chair next to the divan that she'd strategically placed in front of the window for her patients. Most of her patients, new and old, congregated to the divan, but for the rare few, Kali had other furniture in the room. There was a set of two chairs in front of the large oak desk that a patient of her's named Soaumisia and his young wife Lila liked to sit in during their marriage counseling. They claimed it placed them on an even level with each other.

There was a love seat in the back of her room with a chair next to it. The love seat was something a young boy named Kouga—who went to school with Kagome—preferred to lie upon when he came for his session. He came because it was hard for him to cope with his mother having breast cancer and having to go through chemotherapy all the time. Another boy named Maten—also a school mate of Kagome—would often sit on the love seat. He too had cancer and dealt with chemotherapy.

To the left of Kali's desk was a door that led out of the office and into the group counseling room. Furniture in that room was rather sporadic and had more variety from footstools and floor mats all the way to divans and couches. To get into the office, Kali had to walk through the counseling room.

Kali hadn't removed the fact that the Shrine was a sanctimonious place and doubted that the holy ground would even allow it if she wanted to. People came and went, picking up little trinkets and wards from the Shrine store, leaving donations, and spent the night fasting in the rooms. Keeping the Shrine up wasn't a money saver, but it didn't lose her any money either, so either way it worked out well enough.

With all the new patients she was getting, Kali had decided to expand her business and put an ad in the paper telling people she was on call twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. She required only one half an hour notice before the patient came. This did leave her rather tired, but she enjoyed the work, and it allowed her to get her mind off of her own haunting problems that—try though she might—she could not find a solution to. Most of her patients came from seven AM to nine pm, and with small breaks between she had time enough for her family.

"No, I don't know him. I only know he's going to pull the trigger, and then I wake up screaming…" Kikyou was silent, but Kali knew this type of quiet. She could see Kikyou grating and grinding her teeth together, her fingers tirelessly wringing the bottom hem of her shirt. She was debating with herself about whether or not to say more. Kali waited, knowing from experience that she would most likely continue. "The man…shoots Kaede. And grandmother… before he points the gun at me."

The buzzer sounded, ending the session. Unlike Kouga, Kikyou didn't spring up off the seat, eager to leave. She stood quietly, slowly as though she were old and afraid her bones would creak if she was too hasty. "Shall I schedule you another session?" Kali asked and Kikyou nodded slowly, as though the movement was carefully thought out. Flipping through her schedule book, Kali asked, "Is next Tuesday okay? Three o'clock?"

"I can't… I have to work at Soh-A-Tech then."

Kali nodded. "Well, here's my cell phone number." She handed Kikyou a card. "Why don't you call me when you have a chance and we can set things up. Does that sound okay with you?"

"Thank you, Doctor Onigumo. I was dubious when I came here earlier, but…"

Kali nodded, waving away the praise with a hand. "Don't mention it. I enjoyed our session, and I hope you will come again."

* * *

**End chapter.**


	2. What comes from fire

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. _

* * *

Chapter two: What comes from "fire"

Her heart beat a little faster when she saw the number on the phone and knew immediately who was calling her. It made her smile, knowing that even while he was at work, he thought of her enough to call her up, just to say a quick "hi". Her hand shook over the handle for a moment and she let it ring a few times before picking it up and greeting the caller as she would if it weren't _him_. "Hello, Sunset Shrine Psychiatry, Doctor Kalian Onigumo spe—"

She was interrupted almost immediately after getting her name out there. She heard anger in his voice and was struck speechless at the very thought of him angry. She had seen him angry, and didn't want to ever be privileged again to the horror.

_"Can you believe I was _fired_?" _He asked, indignation shining through to her end of the phone. _"Kali, I was the _hardest_ worker there! And they fired me!"_ She could hear the desperation in his voice and wanted to hold him in her arms like he did for her so many times before. The job he had at Soh-A-Tech was one he enjoyed, so it made her feel bad that he was fired.

"It's alright, hon." She told him, trying her best to make him feel better. "They'll realize what a great worker they just lost, I'm sure they will." She heard on the other line mostly just silence, but she heard the tell-tale sounds of a bar at three-thirty PM. It made her feel the happiness that she'd initially felt at his coming phone call dissipate like it had never been there. He couldn't be at the bar, could he?

She found herself praying in her mind to any god that would listen. Don't let my husband be at the bar. The line two button on her phone began to blink red but she felt this was too important for any other call that might be coming in. She listened to him sniff for a few moments before he began to talk again.

_"Kali, I'm sorry... I'm at the bar... I won't come home tonight. I'll see you when I'm sober again."_ Her heart stuck in her throat when she heard he had hung up on her. Three years of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at the hospital didn't keep him away from his problem after something as difficult as getting fired from his job. But he still was sober enough to be thoughtful. If he came home, he would be aggressive—something she desired not to see.

Setting the phone receiver back on the hook, she let the phone ring for a few moments, choking back the tears that wanted to come out. Her husband was fired from Soh-A-Tech, was drinking again because of it, and despite his promise not to come home, she wanted him to so she could be there for him, aggressive or not. She loved him.

The phone stopped ringing and she moved away from her desk to a small armoire placed nearby, opening the right door so she could get to the lock-latch on the left and open that one. There was a mirror on the inside of the left door and she used it to make sure she didn't look anything less than professional. No one, _no one_, would ever know she just wanted to curl up in a ball at that moment and start crying.

Nodding crisply at her reflection she said, "Hello, I am Doctor Onigumo." But her voice shook. She tried again, and again, and again until it was no longer shaky. She tried over and over to control her voice back to that professional, yet soothing tone she used with all patients. Still, the memory of what had happened the last time her husband began drinking haunted her. Her children still bore the scars of those few terrible years...

The phone started ringing again and she moved to answer it. She took a deep steadying breath. This time her heart did not pound out of happiness, but instead out of apprehension. She picked it up after the third ring and said, "Hello, Sunset Shrine Psychiatry, this is Doctor Onigumo speaking."

The man on the other end of the line sounded cold and purely professional, she noted as she heard his voice. She guessed him to be the owner of some well-made business, rather accurately too. Soon as she heard him say his name, she recalled a magazine article written about him and his prospering business. Soh-A-Tech. Did this man know he had just ruined her husband's three years sobriety? Her knuckles were white from holding the phone too tight.

_"Hello, this is Haru Nokugami. I'd like to make an appointment with you."_

Vengeance nipped at her heart and made her blood run cold, goose bumps racing up her arms and legs, even on her stomach. She pulled her schedule over in front of her and said, "Is this your first visit to a Psychiatrist?" Her phone had not broken yet. She was surprised. Her angry midnight eyes threatened to burn a hole right through her desk, even though just looking at it really wouldn't do that itself.

_"The appointment is not for me. It is for my sons."_ Haru said, his voice reaching an even colder air than before. Kali knew how this man could fire her husband, who had worked nearly directly for him. It was because he clearly cared for himself, not others. Oh how she loathed people like that.

There were some people who could tell a person's personality from watching how they dealt with the waitress in a restaurant. Likewise, there were some people who could tell a person's personality just from hearing their voice. Kali could do both, and she was ready to hang up. But the appointment was not for the man who had fired her husband. Instead, it was for the man's sons, who she took pity on. No one should have had to live with such a jerk like Haru Nokugami.

"Is it your sons' first time then?" She found she had to place conscious effort into not grinding her teeth.

_"Yes."_ He said curtly, making Kali's blood boil instead of remain cold—which he had also been the cause of. She wondered if that was how he spoke when he fired people too.

She bit her lip and counted to twenty in her head before turning back to the phone. It would not do to scream at him. She said, "Alright, then," while in her head a little devil was arguing with a little angel about right and wrong and which path she should take. "I have a slot open right now if you can bring them? It is the Group Counseling you wanted right?"

_"Yes."_ Still the same cold and emotionless voice. The phone was straining, she could hear the plastic groaning under the barrage of her fingers applying pressure.

"It will be two thousand per child." She had agreed with the little devil in her head, and it was very satisfied.

_"The ad in the paper says two hundred."_

"Merely a misprint." She told him smoothly. "It is two thousand per child, per session."

_"The ad in the paper says two hundred per child for ever five sessions."_

"Isn't that strange? I shall have to speak with my editor at the newspaper."

_"Hm."_

"Sir?" It took all of her self control not to call him bastard or some equally horrible name. She managed to do it, but barely.

_"You had better do a good job with them." _He warned her before hanging up.

When Haru got to the shrine with his sons, Kali knew immediately which one was well on their way to becoming just like his father. The elder one was. His blank face and cold stare seemed haunting, but his cryptic voice was a complexion towards him. It showed her that he was not quite there yet, that he still cared something for someone other than himself. But underlying that was a layer of ice that was slowly freezing his voice in a monotone.

Haru said, "These sessions will happen once a week. During this time, you will keep them over night. A car will be sent to pick them up in the morning for school." And then, Haru left the two boys in Kali's care.

She looked at them in their strictly businesslike suits. The younger one had messy platinum blond hair, so strange it could almost be silver, and she knew they were both demons. "Well, don't just stand there." She told them. It took all her effort not to snap at them. After all, they weren't the reason her husband was drinking. That was their father's fault. "Come in."

End chapter.


	3. What homework is hard

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: Sorry, I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho people. I'm just a fan. _

* * *

Chapter three: What homework is hard

_"First, may I ask why you two believe you are here?" Kali asked the two boys. They sat next to each other in front of her desk in the two chairs so she had sat behind her desk, folding her hands under her chin and placing her elbows on the desk. _

_"Because _Sesshoumaru_ has a crush on Kagome, a girl in my grade, and is too chicken to do anything about it!" The younger boy with messy silver hair yelled, glaring at the older boy. His hands clenched the armrests of the chair, white knuckled. _

_"Shut it, Inuyasha!" The elder boy snapped, his face no longer emotionless. He had dropped the emotionless act as soon as their father had disappeared down the shrine stairs, making Kali wonder about him. He was an intriguing enigma already and she found herself wondering whether or not the elder boy really was as much like his father as she originally thought. _

_"Make me! Ow!" The elder boy took the younger boy, lifting him right out of the chair before throwing him on the ground. Kali sighed. So much like her own children. Fighting all the time. _

_She spread her power throughout the room, the power of the priestess, and the two boys froze before looking at her. "Enough." She warned them, her voice soft. _

"Dang you, Souta! Come back with those keys!" Kagome hollered at the young boy who had taken the car and driven off. He couldn't hear her, which she realized, but it made her feel better to yell. She wore a skirt that day, only due to a bet with her friends. She and her only girlfriend would wear a skirt and matching top and if they made it through the entire day wearing it, they would get twenty dollars from each of their guy friends.

It wasn't that either desperately needed money, but a bet with someone else created a challenge to themselves. "I'm going to kill him." She chanted in her head. She wanted to run him through a meat grinder, but of course that would probably be called murder and in the wonderful society that they lived in, it was an unacceptable thing to do. So as she started the eight mile walk to her mother's shrine, on the outskirts of the city, she cursed the last day of school, the skirt, and the fact that the school was in the middle of the city.

Soon, she was cursing the wind for being so breezy, and the skirt for constantly wanting to blow up and reveal her underwear. The sandals were not the best walking shoes and so it wasn't long before she was cursing those as well. When she managed to get home finally, she yelled, "SOUTA! PREPARE FOR WAR!"

She saw movement out of the corner of her eye and looked, seeing the sliding door to the living room was closed. She walked over, peering in through the small crack between the two doors and saw a red sleeved arm on the rocking chair in there. She slid open the room door and snuck up behind the chair, prepared to grab them, but only instead found a different person there. "Kouga?" she inquired, surprised. Wasn't it Wednesday? Didn't he come only on Tuesday?

The image of the person sitting on the chair began to fade and she knew what was wrong. Turning quickly, her skirt flared up and she had time enough to see her brother dashing away from her. "It was an illusion," she realized, chasing after him. The skirt allowed her legs even more free movement than pants would have, she realized.

Racing through the lengthy corridors of the shrine, she realized where he was going and hastened to catch him before he got there. She tackled him just before he could open the door to their mother's counseling room and his face came hard into contact with the floor. He yelped, but she would not relent.

She brought his hands up around behind him, twisting them, and he cried out, "Uncle, uncle! I give!"

He should have known better than to mess with his older sister, she thought, but when she saw the bruise forming on his cheek from hitting the ground, she winced, feeling slightly bad. All that heat must have gone to her head, she figured. Ninety degrees wasn't a day made for walking outside eight miles.

"Kagome! Souta! That is enough! You are both adults, I would expect you both to act that way, not like children!" Kali admonished them, having come to discover what noise was disrupting the session she had with the Nokugami boys. She was standing in the doorway to her counseling room, looking hurt and upset that they would fight. The two teens got up, both equally looking guilty.

"Sorry, mama..." Kagome said at the same time that Souta said, "Mama, I'm sorry..."

Kali looked at them both with a stern face for a moment and then her look softened. "I want you both to apologize and then be quiet. I've got a counseling session and I don't want you disturbing it." She turned to go back in the room before looking back at them. "Kagome, dear, I have a few things for you to do—errands really—but whenever you are ready I would like you to come get them off my desk."

Kagome nodded her understanding before turning to her brother. Their mother returned into the room she came from. Souta looked at her and said, "As if I'd apologize to you." He began to walk away, but he was grinning. "The keys are hanging up on the hook in the kitchen." It would be accurate to say that Souta and Kagome, for all their fighting and arguing that they often did, were closer than most siblings. They told each other almost everything and would be considered best friends by most people's terms.

"Cool. Wanna go hang out with Sango, Miroku and me at the Rave later?" Kagome asked as though nothing had happened. Souta went into the living room, which looked very much like a waiting room at a doctor's office. Their mother had made it that way for parents or children or spouses who wanted to wait while their family had their session.

He hopped onto one of the couches by the T.V. and sat to watch cartoons. "Sure I guess. Hey, wanna know what?" He pulled his bright red shirt off and lay back on the cushions. She wished she could do the same. The room was scorching.

"Hm?" Kagome asked, jumping over the low back of the couch to land on his gut. He didn't complain; it was a normal occurrence, but he did make the traditional 'oomph' sound one makes when one has the air run out of their body quickly. The skirt was just long enough to cover her legs so at least their skin wasn't plastering to each other. Upon her body, bells jingled musically when she landed. A bracelet made of pure, thick silver chain links was on each wrist and from each chain link dangled a tiny bell, perfectly toned like a wind chime.

On her neck was an almost identical choker necklace to the bracelets, though it was slightly different. To prevent the chain links from pinching her neck it was backed with a black velvet connector. Dangling from the very center of the necklace was a midnight colored star, and from each side of the star was the tiny bells coming from each chain link. This jewelry she called her responsibility.

"I asked Nakoto out." He told her, his eyes plastered to the screen as though if he looked away, he would miss something awesome about the Water Soaker Five-Thousand-And-One commercial that conquered the television at the moment.

She already could guess the answer to the question she was about to ask, but asked it anyway. "What'd she say?"

"No..."

"Sucks to be you." She stated, and he threw his lip out in a pout. She grinned down at him, "You know, she's too stuck up for her own good anyway."

"Still, it sucks." He sighed and changed the subject. "What time are you going?"

The cartoon came back on and Souta's attention was fully devoted to the television. Kagome knew better than to try talking to him until the commercial. Ten minutes later the commercials came on again and he looked at her expectantly. "Probably five thirty, six o'clock. Somewhere around there."

"Okay. So's I know."

"Mhm. I'm pickin' Miroku up on the way." Kagome looked down at her brother. He stuck his tongue out at her and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Trip gonna be there?" He questioned.

She shook her head. "No, he's still feeling sick."

"Okay."

She left to go up to her room, doing a bit of her homework with difficulty. She never was good at math. The subject she excelled in was History but that was because she lived on a shrine and her mother and father had been teaching her and her brother it all their life. She got bored of it before she finished. The only thing she managed toget a lot done onwas her history work for Mr. Hiatz. Why teachers gave homework over the summer holiday, she would never understand, but at least she had a lot of time to work on it.

**End chapter.**


	4. What comes with Summer

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Yu Yu Hakusho. _

* * *

Chapter four: What comes with Summer

When she had come down from the third floor of the shrine, the floor that she shared with Souta, she went straight to the kitchen and got a soda from the fridge. There was nothing like soda to wet a parched mouth, she thought, even though in the meanwhile she was destroying her stomach. Hey, no one said she was perfect.

She was heading to watch television in the living room with her brother when the doorbell rang, sounding loud like a gong ringing through the shrine. The giant shrine had to have a loud doorbell or no one would know if there was someone at the door. They didn't have a butler to stand waiting by the door, after all. She detoured to the front of the house, doubting that anyone else was getting up to get it.

When she got there, she heard the insistent tapping of knuckles on the front door as the impatient person decided the doorbell wasn't enough to attract attention. Throwing open the front door, she looked at the person there with a quirked eyebrow, sipping her soda thoughtfully. She tilted her head this way and that, trying to figure out what the person standing before her was supposed to be.

"I was unaware it was Halloween." She told them cryptically and their face flushed even behind all the make up they wore.

"I was unaware that sluts were a part of the 'in' fad these days." The girl at the door insisted, stepping inside with her bag in her arms. Kagome looked over her cousin for a moment. Karei Taisei had to be one of the most beautiful people Kagome had ever met, but that didn't make Kagome and her cousin friends by any means. Karei wore her ballet uniform, but on her feet were sandals instead of her Pointe shoes.

Karei shoved past Kagome, pulling her beautiful blond hair out of the tight bun it was held in using bobby pins. Her emerald eyes scanned the inner hall for a moment before she kicked her shoes off on the mat by the door and turned to look at Kagome. Karei's voice was a beautiful natural soprano, but somehow that sound of her voice tended to grate on Kagome's nerves. "Don't you like the skirt?" Kagome asked her cousin, looking at herself for a moment.

Karei always made Kagome feel like she wasn't good enough in comparison with her cousin. Karei could have been some sort of goddess with as perfect as she seemed to be. Karei had it all—cars, money, guys, friends; name it she had it. If she didn't have it, she could get it instantly. "No, I do not." Karei told her truthfully. She pursed her lips for a moment before turning and trotting to the stairs going up. "Tell Auntie that I am going to the Rave tonight."

Kagome had no intention of telling her mother for Karei. Once a year Karei came to stay with Kagome and Souta while her mother and father went on a vacation together, so it was during this one week per year that Kagome tended to steer clear of the 'dark side' of the shrine—the end of the shrine that her cousin was housed. No, she really did not like Karei.

Walking into the living room, Kagome sat down on the black leather recliner, hearing the fabric squish and squeak with movement. One leg she threw over the arm of the recliner, the other she left resting on the floor to rock the chair. "Souta, move your leg so I can see!" Kagome told him.

Souta flipped his middle finger at Kagome and moved his leg further into her line of vision. "Screw you, wench." He told her, though he honestly didn't mean what he said. He swore it was the media messing with his mind, though she knew otherwise. There were a number of other influences that could have been the problem.

"Souta!" Kali had a knack of coming into the room at just the right—or wrong—time to hear her children swear. Souta stood, ducking his head in shame while Kagome snickered at him.

"Sorry Mama..." He apologized. Whether or not he honestly felt bad about swearing was unknown but that didn't stop Kali from rounding on her daughter as well.

"And you!" Kali waggled a finger at Kagome. "Stop egging him on!"

"Okay, okay!" Kagome held her hands up in defeat, but she didn't stand and duck her head like Souta had.

Kali straightened up after that, running her hands over her suit coat to be sure it wasn't wrinkled at all. Kagome looked up at her mother for a moment, noticing how her mother seemed a bit more tired than normal. Kali usually was tired because of her late nights working, but this weary look in Kali's eyes was far different. "Kagome, the packages on my desk need to be mailed in the morning. I have a convention to go to this week—"

"But mama, Karei's here this week, and this is my only week of break before Summer School!" Kagome complained, standing immediately to look at her mother. Kagome was jealous, of course, because the psychology conventions that her mother went to every year were sporadic and last minute more often than not.

Kali held up her hand, halting any further complaints. "I'm sorry, Kagome." She said, looking at the silent Souta. Souta was the mama's boy, but more than that he got good marks in school and didn't have Summer School to prepare for, so Kali would let him go along. Kagome wondered if she managed to pull up perfect marks, she would get to go to the next convention, but doubted it. "Souta, are you coming again? If so, please go pack. We'll have to leave tonight."

Souta sighed, picking up his discarded shirt from the floor before walking out of the living room. Of course, Kagome thought, he would go. She immediately felt bad for the stream of cruel thoughts that followed; jealousy kicking in high gear. She stared at her mother with arms crossed over her chest. For a long moment she was silent before she turned away from her mother, finally giving into the dramatics that wanted to flare in her. "Fine, fine!" she said, waving her hands dismissively. "Go on, have fun. Dad's still here anyway, so at least _someone_ still loves me!"

She immediately regretted her words, knowing they would have made her mother feel bad. Her mother's voice was shaky as she said, "Kagome, your father was fired today. He couldn't handle it, and when he called me... he was at the bar."

Well, so much for her father being there with her. Her blood ran cold at the memories of her father's alcoholism from years before. He had been sober for three years. Kagome would have to deal with a drunken father, wouldn't she? But not only that, but Karei would have to deal with it too because she was coincidentally visiting for the one week of the summer that she came. Why did it have to happen then? Her mother would be away with Souta at the summer convention. They were lucky.

Kagome might not have liked Karei, but it didn't mean she would wish Karei to have to deal with something like..._hell._

End chapter.


	5. What comes with alcohol

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own either. _

* * *

Chapter five: What comes with alcohol

_Kali looked at the two boys for a long moment before reigning in her power again. At the hint of the power they got back up from their fight and sat back down in front of her desk. She wouldn't have her office torn apart because of some sibling feud. She had to deal with that enough over the rest of the house because of her own children. "Now, tell me about this Kagome character." _

_Kali did not assume it was her daughter because 'Kagome' was a common enough name. There were two other girls named Kagome in Inuyasha's grade besides 'Kagome Higurashi'. Inuyasha scratched the back of his neck and moved his chair farther away from his brother before answering. Sesshoumaru appeared not to have heard the question at all, staring with cold eyes at Kali's armoire as though if he looked long enough, it would get up and do a jig. It didn't, Kali noticed, and wondered if he would be disappointed with wry irony. _

_"Yeah, sure, Kagome's hot," Inuyasha started in his description, "but she's the complete opposite of Sesshoumaru. She's like... imperfection! They'd never work out, except one night last Summer he went to the Rave and met her there. They got drunk and went back to Haru's house—I think you can guess the rest." _

_Kali wasn't one to miss the fact that Inuyasha had said Haru instead of father, or dad. Sesshoumaru seemed really uncomfortable with the subject they were currently on, so Kali decided a change was needed. She would eventually learn more about Kagome. "When you say 'Haru' don't you mean 'father'?" _

_"No!" Inuyasha all but spat, lines of anger etched into his face. "That cold bastard can rot in hell for all I care!" Kali realized something about what Inuyasha had said. If it was true that the girl, Kagome, was in Inuyasha's grade that left only three options of which Kagome it was. Kali knew personally each of those girls would have been between the ages of sixteen and seventeen last summer, and in turn that also led to Sesshoumaru being twenty-three at the youngest last summer. _

_No wonder he was uncomfortable with the particular subject at hand..._

Kagome had heard her mother walking away from her before she bothered to turn around. She felt really bad because she had undoubtedly made her mother feel bad. She found her feet carrying her towards Karei's room unbidden, though it wasn't exactly her best interest to go there. She knew that at least a warning for Karei was necessary, even if she didn't like her cousin at all.

When she made it there, she raised her hand as though to knock, but it stilled in the air at the sound of more than one person within the room. Instead of knocking, she placed her hand on the doorknob, turning slowly to see if it was locked—it was—and got her house key-ring which, more often than not, resided on her hip. Souta often snatched the car keys from her and since they only had one set amongst the two of them, neither kept their house keys with the car key.

She winced at the thought of the car. She'd have to call Miroku and let him know she had to cancel the Rave that night, or he would be looking and waiting for her to show up. Miroku was one of her friends from school, a tall boy with black hair that he generally kept in a perfect dragon tail at the nape of his neck. His brown eyes were often alight with either mischief or perverted thoughts, but he was a good guy at heart.

Miroku didn't have much money and so had to rely on other people for rides to and from places, or else walk. With eight other brothers and no father to help support them all, he and his mother often worked their rears off just trying to make ends meet. Miroku didn't go to the private school with Souta and Kagome; instead he had gone to the public school. After graduation, he took up a full-time job at Soh-A-Tech, the main job force in their town, and worked hard to help his mother and brothers make it through.

Shaking her head slightly, she sighed again and pushed the master key into the lock. There were benefits to having a master key for all the rooms in the house. No one could lock her out of a room if she wanted to get in. Inside the room she heard a slight shuffle before she had it unlocked and removed the key from the lock.

Throwing open the door carelessly, it slammed into a stand near the door and tipped the weak legged thing over. She looked at her cousin and the silver haired man who sat looking a little ruffled around the edges. A mischievous grin alighted on her face and she teased, "Sesshoumaru, I see you haven't changed at all."

Of course she had known her cousin was dating Sesshoumaru. She had known this for three years when they started dating and Karei had brought her boyfriend to dinner with Kagome's mother. Now her cousin was twenty-four and in college to major in dance at the Shile's Dance Academy in the next city over, and Sesshoumaru was twenty-five, going to Sunset University to be a doctor.

Kagome nearly scowled at the thought. It would have been more accurate to say that Sesshoumaru had practically graduated already. With nothing to do but study, he had apparently just paid for what seemed a ridiculous amount of classes to take and completed them. She'd bet that Sesshoumaru would get to go with her mother because of his good marks if he wanted to.

But no, Kagome was left home alone. Still, as unfair as it seemed, she supposed there was nothing she could do about it and so tried her best to just put it out of her mind. She saw Sesshoumaru's eyes become as expressionless as his face was and gave him an equal half-lidded stare. She would take no guff from him!

But it was rather amusing for her at least to know that he could be less-than-perfection in his appearance. Or perhaps it was only Karei that managed to get that out of him? Kagome certainly never managed that in all the years she had known him and his brother. Kagome had grown up with his brother, gone to the same private school as him and his brother, though Sesshoumaru had been many years older than her, seven to be exact.

Karei was perfect for Sesshoumaru, Kagome thought suddenly. She liked perfection. He liked perfection. She looked like she could be a goddess walking the earth. He most certainly could be a god walking the earth even on his worst day, like at that moment, for instance? Sesshoumaru's voice was a perfect sensual baritone. Karei's was a perfect sensual soprano.

They were perfect for each other! Okay, so why did Kagome come in here again? To analyze the pair on the bed? She was thinking too much lately, she was sure of that. Looking at Sesshoumaru and Karei, their equally impassive expressions told her that they were both perfectly annoyed with her for the interruption. Perfect timing.

"I thought you were going to the Rave, dearest cousin?" Kagome asked Karei, who leveled cold emerald eyes at her before flipping her curly blond hair back over her shoulder where it fell into place _perfectly_. The room was filled with perfection to a suffocating amount and it was slowly eating away at Kagome the longer she stayed. She was going to have a great deal of trouble keeping in arguments that wanted to arise if she stayed much longer, such a bowl of imperfection she was.

Karei calmly stated, as though there had never even been an interruption earlier of embarrassing proportions, "I will. What do you want, Kagome?"

"Remember where you are, Karei." Kagome told her cousin, feeling the hair rise on the back of her neck at the tone her cousin was using. "This is my family's shrine, not your play-gym." At least Karei then had the decency to blush lightly, but Kagome wanted to strangle Karei for it because even then Karei looked so pretty with a light sprinkling of pink covering her cheeks.

When Kagome blushed, she just looked like a strangely colored tomato. As revenge, Kagome decided not to warn Karei—cruel though it would be. Karei would probably lock the door anyway and so Kagome's father wouldn't realize in his drunken stupor that Karei was visiting. She turned and left the room suddenly, walking back down the hall.

She heard the door close again and the lock clicked. Slowly she was able to breathe again as she took in the shrine. The dark, slightly dingy walls were a comfort to her. They didn't radiate the beauty of possible immortality. The paintings that were on the walls every twenty feet were dusty, in need of cleaning. The outsides of the windows that she passed were mostly covered in vines, keeping out the outside light and casting a darker glow on the halls.

She was sure that if she heard Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu, she would jump out of her skin, freaked out by the house she had lived in since she was a little girl. Before she knew it, she had reached the door that led to the stairs going up into the third story, or the attic. The door was littered with signs that warned people away. If she had to give the door a name, she would call it the door to hell, just because of how freaky it looked.

The door was taller than most of the regular doors around the shrine. At the top, instead of being flat, it arched like a rounded triangle and the handle, once made of shining iron, looked like it was hundreds of years old, even if it wasn't. The handle had once been made to resemble an angel's wing, but now looked like a devil's horn instead.

Kagome went through that door, unperturbed by how foreboding it looked. It closed behind her, slamming her into complete and utter darkness as she walked up the stairs and down the hall, feeling her way along the wall for the handle to her door. Normally she would have had light to guide her way but earlier that week the bulb in the hall had burned out and she hadn't gotten around to changing it.

She swore when her hand came into a harsh contact with the door handle. Her door was on one side of the hallway and Souta's was on the other. If she continued going straight, she would have reached the bathroom that she and Souta shared. Instead, she turned the handle of her door and entered her room, flicking on the light switch.

She closed her eyes at the sudden onslaught of light that she had subjected herself to, tripping over a box of fallen marbles that suddenly seemed so sinister. Strong arms gripped her, steadying her from what would have been a painful landing. She allowed herself to relax in those familiar arms as her eyes adjusted to the light, her arms snaking up around the friendly and warm neck.

* * *

**End.**


	6. What is confidential

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own._

* * *

Chapter six: What is confidential

_"I take it you don't like your father very much?" Kali asked softly. Both boys—whether or not they were twenty-five and nineteen didn't matter, they would always be boys to her—shrugged as though it didn't really matter anyway. She tried another approach to coerce them into speaking. "What is it about him that you do not like the most?" _

_When they still didn't talk, Kali pursed her lips in thought. She would have to split them up to find out, undoubtedly. Sometimes to get siblings to talk, they needed to be separated from one another. So she looked at the younger one. "Inuyasha," she started, and then looked at the elder one, "and Sesshoumaru. How about we try something? I would like you, Inuyasha, to go into the next room while I talk to Sesshoumaru. Then we can switch afterwards." _

_Inuyasha stood and huffed as he left. He shut the door behind him perhaps a little too roughly, but she heard it latch so knew Inuyasha would not be able to eavesdrop unnoticeably. "Sesshoumaru?" Kali inquired and saw her straight-backed patient slump in the chair. Yes, he was an intriguing patient with a façade for everyone. _

_"This is confidential, correct?" Sesshoumaru asked and Kali nodded. "Then I shall talk..." _

"Hey baby. You look tired." She felt it being said even as she heard it. She looked up at Kohaku for a moment to find his brown eyes staring down at her with worry. Kohaku was one year younger than her exactly, born on the same day as she was, only a year later. He was one of her closest friends and her boyfriend. They had been 'going out' since pretty near elementary school.

Since he had been born, Kohaku had never had the strongest body. He was sick a lot and had to take an array of medication just to keep his body alive. On top of all his illnesses, he had a slight immune deficiency—though not enough to put him in a bubble for life—and was born with a hole in his heart that made breathing come difficult. He had only one lung after an accident when he was a child.

Kohaku was a miracle. He probably should have died, but there he stood with his strong arms around her. She felt like a million dollars in his arms. Never before had she kept a secret from him, even when she had gotten drunk and ended up in the sack with another man. She had always told Kohaku whether or not she wanted to.

So even now, she felt the words bubbling up. "Kohaku, my dad got fired today." She buried her face in his neck even as he led her to the bed in her room where they sat together, just holding one another. "And you should be at home, resting." She pointed out, not about to miss the fact that his breathing was slightly labored, probably from coming to see her. Kohaku used to go to private school with her, but his constant being sick made it so his father had him home schooled.

Kohaku chuckled warmly, running a hand through her bangs. "Baby, my home is with you," he told her, sounding so honest and sincere that she only wanted to curl up next to him and never leave his side for anything. This was what she loved about him. Even though he had some health issues that could be terrible, he still risked everything to see her.

On a good day, she could be expected to get into at least three arguments about how he shouldn't be risking himself for her from her alone. This was discounting all the reaming he received from other people around him who disagreed with his dating her, saying she was bad for his health. Kohaku insisted she was the only thing he had that was good for him.

"How tired are you?" she asked him, lifting her head to look at him again. The sweat that marred his upper lip and forehead told her he was less-than ready. He needed to rest, and so whether or not he wanted to, she was going to make him. Now for sure she wouldn't be going to meet Miroku to go to the Rave.

Kohaku waved her off, casting an annoyed look at her before shifting so he was more comfortable. His eyes seemed to droop of their own will, giving him a sleepy look. "I'm fine, baby." He told her, though she wasn't falling for it at all. Even his arms weren't holding her as tight as they had initially.

She pulled away from him and looked at him sternly. "Lay down. You need rest."

He chuckled at her, but did as told and shifted until he was lying down on her pillow. "There. Now, will you lay by me? I might die if you don't."

She moved to lay by him, saying, "Don't even joke like that. I don't want to know what I would do if I lost you."

"Sorry," he apologized, but she knew he would do it again. It was something he did. It might not have bothered her so much when he said it if there weren't such a great chance that he would die.

_"Yuri and I were six when the first of a series of disgusting events began. Haru began beating our mother—" He stopped when he saw her pencil skimming across the paper in front of her, writing down the short-hand version of what he was saying. For him, it was very distracting, but he frowned and just continued. "Yuri is my twin. Half a year after that, our father began cheating on our mother." _

_"I see." Kali set down her pencil. "Go on..." _

_Sesshoumaru leaned his head back, his arms moving his hair so it wasn't behind his back still. He really had long hair. "Inuyasha came into the picture and my mother couldn't take it. In the middle of the night, she came to the room I shared with my sister and woke us up. She said, 'We're going on a vacation. But we need to be quiet. Don't make any noise, okay?'" _

_Kali remained silent, writing the short hand of what he was saying. He spoke at an even pace, so keeping up was not difficult. He had paused, and so she looked at him. His face was again unreadable. _

_"So we were leaving... Mother shoved a piece of paper in my hand and told me to hang on to it. As we were leaving, Haru stopped us and had mother arrested..." _

**End.**


	7. What is death

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own._

Chapter seven: What is death

_"He had your mother arrested?" Kali was very surprised to hear this. Everyone knew about Nekura Nokugami—Inuyasha's mother, but everyone also thought that Nekura was Sesshoumaru's mother as well. Aside from that, no one had ever known that Sesshoumaru had a twin. _

_"He did." Sesshoumaru's fist clenched and unclenched, though he kept an even tone of voice. "This was before we moved here, and when Yuri and I were nine and Inuyasha was three, we were playing in a park near the mansion. My father's housemaid was watching us—Nekura never really cared about us in that concern." _

_"Go on…" Kali urged. She did wonder what he meant by 'in that concern', but she didn't bring it up and instead hoped he would clear that up on his own terms. _

_"I remember liking old Quoni. She was like a mother to all of us, or a grandmother and after losing my mother for reasons my father won't say, I didn't want to lose her. But that day, I remember a loud series of bangs. Yuri, Inuyasha, and I were all grabbed up by strong men and stolen away. Quoni was shot dead that day. My father only paid the ransom for…" He trailed off, his face becoming hard and closed. _

Kagome woke up, gasping slightly as the dream faded. She tried to remember where she was or how she got there and then realized that she was in the living room. Souta was standing over her, so close his short hair brushed her nose. She slapped him for being that close—close enough to kiss.

"Ow!" he cried and held his cheek as he backed away. "What was that for?"

Kagome looked around the room, frowning. There was a movie in but it was on the credits. Souta must have watched something while she slept. "Why aren't you at the convention with mama?" she asked of him.

Souta sighed and sat on the wide couch next to her. "Dreaming again, are you? Mama came in about an hour ago while you were sleeping and apologized to me because we were staying home. She said it had something to do with dad, but wouldn't say what." He rubbed his bare back where old, line-shaped scars were, criss-crossing all over the place like he'd been beaten long ago with a hard strip of leather.

Kagome let out a relieved sigh. "I dreamt that you and mama went to the convention, and Karei came for the week, and that one Nokugami boy was here… forgot his name again…" In her partial-wakefulness, it was difficult to remember who it had been in her dream. Karei's boyfriend, but what was his name?

"Sesshoumaru Nokugami, you mean?" Souta offered. She nodded; that sounded right.

"And mama in my dream said that daddy had lost his job and was drinking at the bar. I went to my room and Kohaku was there, though now that I think of it, I should've known it was a dream, since Kohaku can't climb stairs without assistance. How long was I out?"

"You fell asleep almost immediately after you sat on my stomach." Souta said. "You're so fat, it took me ten minutes to get out from under you."

Her only response was to glare at him.

Souta chuckled a bit. "Well, you slept right through the Rave," he went on, "and I went anyway. I couldn't wake you before. You woke up just as I was about to scream in your ear just now." His hand continued to try to massage his back. "Man, I think it's gonna rain soon. It only itches like this before the rain."

Kagome groaned as she sat up, placing her hands on her brother's back to rub the scars. His back wasn't as bad as hers was, and Kagome's back wasn't as bad as their mother's was. While Kali had tried to protect her children from their father's drunken rage, she couldn't keep it up before she ran out of strength and he turned on the children.

Kagome had saved Souta from most of the blows and in turn, their relationship had grown steadily stronger. She'd never felt bitter that he hadn't taken as many blows. "Mine don't itch if it's gonna rain," she muttered.

He turned and looked back at her, grasping her shoulders and forcing her back down to the couch. He pinned her hands over her head with one hand but only because she let him. "Oh no," he chuckled. "They only itch if someone's getting hurt." It was a joke between them: if someone she knew was getting hurt and she could prevent it, she would claim 'My scars itch'. "Well, tell me something," Souta asked, twiddling his free fingers over her stomach. It tickled and she attempted to refrain from squirming. "Do they itch now?"

She couldn't bite back a laugh and pulled her hands free. "Don't do that!" she ordered, grabbing his fingers with her hands.

"But what if I want to?" he quipped. "Trip called and told me to do it, and I would even if he said not to."

She flicked the puffy lip she'd given him earlier in their scuffle. "I'll do more to you than this if you don't back away now!" she promised him.

"Kagome! Souta!" They heard their mother admonish. "Souta, get off your sister. This is very improper behavior. I mean, really! Straddling your sister? I thought I'd seen it all!" Souta blushed at their mother's implying, yet somehow teasing tone, and Kagome felt a laugh bubble out of her throat at the look on her mother's face.

Kali had just been walking by the living room when she'd heard her children wrestling on the couch again. She'd decided to stop them before the furniture suffered for their actions.

Then the two children noticed that their mother was dressed in her usual traveling clothes—she wore the same outfit every time she went to, or came back from, a psychiatry convention. "Mama?" Souta asked, confused. "You said we weren't going."

Kali smiled at her son and stepped into the room, though both children could see the sad look in her eyes. "'We' aren't going. I'm going to pick up your father and go with him this time. I think you two are old enough to have run of the house for five days…"

Souta immediately clamored off Kagome's stomach and looked at his mother with begging eyes. The convention was usually his time with his mother. He really was a mama's boy through and through. "But mama," he dragged out her name into a whine. "I want to go!"

Kali shook her head. "I haven't had a moment alone with your father for eighteen years!" she said. When they both looked at her in disbelief, she sighed and walked into the room, sitting on the arm of the couch to look at them. They were almost always out of the house with their friends, and the house was so big that even if the two children _were_ home, finding a private area to 'be alone' in wasn't hard.

"What's going on, mama?" Kagome demanded. She had a sick feeling in her gut. Something bad was about to happen. _Her scars were itching. _

"This afternoon I received a phone call from your father… He told me he was fired from his job at Soh-A-Tech and he was drinking again. He did promise me he wouldn't come home tonight, but I hope that if I take him with me to the convention this week, you two will be safe. Perhaps even a little vacation like this will do him some good."

Kagome and Souta's eyes went wide and they looked at each other. Kagome then looked at her mother. "Mama, I had a dream…" Kali tilted her head in concern and nodded to Kagome in a silent urge for the girl to continue. Kali was always curious about what was going on in her children's lives. "You told us about daddy losing his job in my dream, and then took Souta…to the convention…"

"It was just a dream, Kagome." Kali sighed. "Except the part about Naraku losing his job… that was real. I'm leaving now to get your father. Kagome, we have guests for the night, and I'm going to leave you in charge this week. Karei is here for the week, and two of my patients are staying the night in the shrine fasting rooms. Their father will pick them up tomorrow morning or afternoon, I'm not sure when exactly. There are packages on my desk that need to be mailed tomorrow and I left money in the safe for you for the week."

Both Kagome and Souta knew the code to get in the safe.

"I can't think of anything else you'll need to know. Oh, yes! Uncle Hakudoushi and Aunt May," they were Karei's father and mother, "said they'd send you souvenirs of their trip to America. They should be heading for the airport soon, so if you want to call and wish them a happy and safe trip, you can. I'm sure they'd be delighted to hear from you."

And with that, their mother turned heal and walked away without a hug or kiss goodbye from either of them. It would be a sorely missed opportunity on both their parts.

_"Who did your father pay ransom for?" Kali urged. _

_Sesshoumaru didn't hesitate for much longer, but instead he spat out the name, "Inuyasha," as if it were a disease. Kali assumed that was probably why Sesshoumaru didn't like Inuyasha all that much and why they fought, but she was quickly proven wrong when he said, "And me. He paid for _Inuyasha_ and _me_ but not my sister. Not Yuri. He only wanted his sons, but since then he seems to have hated us. _

_"Good grades? To him, those are menial. Immaculate state of cleanliness—we both keep our part of the house cleaner than the maids do yet he cares not; excellence in music—the fact that I've been called the equal of Mozart with the violin is nothing to him; we can do nothing to make him like us. But it is Nekura's fault because she has shown more interest in us than in him." _

_This confused Kali because earlier Sesshoumaru had stated 'Nekura never cared about us in that concern'. She assumed that must mean Nekura was an inattentive mother to the needs of her children. The buzzer sounded; she'd set it to let her know when half the time was over so she could speak to Inuyasha. _

_Sesshoumaru didn't need to be told. He simply stood and walked regally toward the door out, quickly slipping his emotionless mask back on. She wondered, 'Does he really hate his brother, or is it a façade?' _

_As Inuyasha settled in the chair, Kali's phone rang. "Excuse me just one moment, Inuyasha," she apologized and answered her home phone. She talked for a moment but mostly she only listened. _

_The President of the JPA, the Japanese Psychiatry Association, stated that she was listed to speak first at the annual psychiatry convention. It made her wonder what she was going to do with her children and husband during that time. The past few years she'd taken Souta with her and left Kagome with Naraku. With him sober, he wasn't abusive and he could be trusted with his daughter and not harm her. _

_But with him drinking again, it made her nervous to leave. She wanted to say she wouldn't be able to make it to the convention, but if she did that, she might still not be able to protect her children from Naraku. She thought, 'I'll just take Naraku with me…' _

_She couldn't take both her children because in his drunken rage, Naraku would just follow her, thinking she was running away from him. She also couldn't trust him to stay away from their home while he was drunk. She had to be honest with herself. If she left either of her children with him, he would abuse them. _

_He would settle to just stay with her, she was sure. She agreed to speak first at the convention, hung up, and proceeded to try drawing information from Inuyasha. He was far less open without Sesshoumaru around. Why was that? He'd been talkative enough before… He simply sat there, grumbling at the floor things that made absolutely no sense. Talk of 'the Rave' and 'Kouga's band'. _

That night, Kagome called Kohaku as she lay on her bed. She felt the distinct absence of both her mother and father's presences and it made her lonely. Souta sat at the end of her bed, painting her toenails simply because he wanted to, while she talked to her boyfriend. She didn't understand her brother's behavior sometimes.

"You haven't been in my room in the past twelve hours, have you, baby?" Kagome asked Kohaku. She felt a cool substance being placed on her toenails and looked: Souta had chosen a shiny maroony-purple color. "Oh, Souta, not that color! I asked for red if you have to do it."

She heard Kohaku wheeze a laugh. _"Painting your toenails… is he…?_"

Souta quipped, "It is red! Sort of."

Kagome didn't want to argue while she was on the phone, but instead she resolved to use nail polish removal later. Kohaku responded to her original question, _"I wish I had been. San-chan's got me all but tied to my bed."_ Kagome heard an indignant scoff in the background and a cry of 'I do not!' _"I said, 'All but', which means held in my bed by every means except being tied physically." _

Kagome giggled. "So how are you feeling?"

_"Lonely,"_ was the response she got back. He coughed for a long moment before she heard Sango's voice. _"Sorry, Kagome, but it's really getting late. He needs his medicine and some rest. Call back tomorrow, okay?"_

Kagome sighed heavily. "Tell him I love him, will you?" She knew Sango would. Sango was her closest friend, and there were only three people in the entire world who believed that Kagome's relationship did some good for Kohaku: Sango, Souta, and Miroku. Sango and Kohaku's parents believed that Kagome was too wild for Kohaku and made him sicker. Kali believed that Kagome was only setting herself up for heartache later, though she never tried to stop the relationship. Naraku worried that Kagome was going to get herself hurt or catch some strange illness.

The rest of the world? They believed what Kohaku's parents believed.

Kagome wasn't sure what her relationship with Kohaku did, though she was sure she would die if he did. Kagome dropped her phone on the floor next to the bed and let out another sigh. Within ten minutes, Souta had finished her nails and left them to dry. It was noon before either of them woke up and that was only because Karei was shaking Kagome's shoulder urgently.

Souta had fallen asleep next to Kagome. He'd curled up in a ball and at some point in the night he'd found his old security blanket. Their mother leaving with Naraku for a week had him nervous. Karei would never let him hear the end of it either.

"What is it, Karei?" Kagome asked her cousin blearily, trying to wake up yet remain quiet enough so Souta could sleep.

"I think you two need to get up and dress, quickly. There're some… policemen here… they're in the living room." Karei looked like she'd been crying. "Please, get up. Up!"

Kagome shook her brother awake and he looked at her with sleep-filled eyes. "What's going on?" he mumbled.

"There's been an accident." Karei said. "Aunt Kali's car crashed last night."

Both siblings jolted upright and bore down on the helpless Karei. "Mama was in an accident? Was she hurt? Is daddy okay?" Kagome and Souta ticked off question after question, but Karei didn't have the answers.

They raced down the stairs in their pajamas to the first floor, Souta not even realizing he still clutched his blanky in his fingers, and skid into the living room. Their barrage of questions was turned on two somber looking adults. The policemen were silent for a long time before saying in the middle of a slight pause, "I'm really sorry to have to tell you but…" A deathly silence was what filled the air. The policeman didn't even have to finish that.

"We're not sure the cause of the crash yet. Five people died in that crash, including both your parents and the taxi-driver. We believe the passengers of the other vehicle may have been your aunt and uncle, but we need you to come to the morgue and identify the bodies anyway…"

It wasn't unbelievable that they would already know it was Kalian Onigumo in that car. She was famed everywhere from Japan to the U.S. to Europe. Souta fell to his knees, looking like his world had crashed around his ears. Kagome felt only numbness enter her body. Karei wasn't crying, but her eyes remained red. She'd already heard that, though hearing it more than once hardly made things better.

"Mama said she'd be back in five days," Kagome said. "You're mistaken, it isn't her." She did, however, let them tug her off to the morgue with Karei by her side. Souta seemed to have no will to get up, so one of the policemen offered to stay with him and make sure he didn't do anything rash.

The bodies were a bit mangled, naked, and death-pale but it was definitely her mother, father, uncle, and aunt. Now the only family Kagome had left alive was Karei and Souta. It was hard to look upon their faces, knowing she'd never see any of them again except at a funeral.

Karei straightened herself up, suddenly businesslike, though her eyes were haunted yet. "As their only remaining family member, I will take my cousins under my wing."

"Can't," the morgue doctor said. "Not with the CEO of Soh-A-Tech running this town."

"What do you mean?" Karei asked indignantly, and Kagome wondered why she even cared. This was KAREI in discussion and she was ready to fight for custody of two cousins who she barely got along with? Because Kagome and Souta were still in school, they had to go to a foster home.

The doctor shrugged. "That Haru Nokugami has the mayor in his palm. Now children who lose their parents are given to Soh-A-Tech and there's nothing we can do about it."

"But Soh-A-Tech is just an android manufacturing company! What could they want with children?" Karei snapped. "And do you really think the government would allow for such breaches in the government laws?"

Another shrug. "Soh-A-Tech does what it wants. _Nokugami_ does what _he_ wants. There's no stopping it." Kagome wasn't sure what to think anymore. Here was her mother, lying on the cold metal table underneath a white sheet. Kali had tried for years to get Kagome to act like a girl, but she'd been a tomboy from the get-go. Baggy jeans, boxer-shorts, tank-tops, baggy shirts, flannels, anything a boy might wear. Makeup was treason, considered cross-dressing.

Would this have happened if she had acted like a girl all those years?

Here was her father, his usually mischievous face gone and replaced with the harsh look of death. He'd encouraged the tomboyish nature in Kagome and always wrinkled his nose when she took up the bets her friends made for her to wear 'girl clothes'. He'd taught her as a young girl the way of the fighter and to be strong for others. Then something changed and he started drinking.

He abused his family, made them scream and beg for mercy and release. Then he began going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and stopped drinking, returning to the old father they'd known. He started up his playful pranks and continued to encourage both children to be strong and to fight for others.

Would this have happened if Kagome never took up those bets?

Why did this have to happen? Did the dream she'd had have anything to do with it? Would it have happened if Souta had gone and Kagome had stayed with her father? Or would she have instead lost a mother and a brother? Could she have prevented it from happening if she insisted her mother stay?

'I didn't even say goodbye,' she thought miserably as she returned that night to her brother's side. She found him curled up in her bed, holding their family picture and his blanky tight in his grasp. He'd cried himself into a fitful slumber.

She lay by him and held his hand, wondering what was to become of them. If the morgue doctor was right and underage children became the dependants of Soh-A-Tech on the death of their parents, then where did that leave them? Would they be separated? Would they get to stay in their home?

Probably not, she thought as she drifted off into as fitful of sleep as Souta was in.

**End.**


	8. What is suicide

**Title: Beautifully Imperfect  
**Author: Tsubasa Kya  
_Disclaimer: I do not own._

Chapter eight: What is suicide

The courts had opened; Karei was fighting for the right to adopt Kagome and Souta. Kagome and Souta really didn't have the energy to join the fight anymore. Both of them used to be so brash; every fight was a chance to exercise without caution. Karei tried to talk to Kagome and Souta, tried to get them to understand that she was an adult and had the legal right to adopt them.

But it was not Kagome who was strong in the face of so great an evil as her father's death. And it was not Souta who was physically complete after the death of his mother. Karei had lost just as much in the very same instant. In the very same way.

It was so simple that it was ironic. One moment the three had family; the next they did not and had only each other. Karei wasn't to become the 'property' of Soh-A-Tech because she was an adult; because adults didn't own other adults.

That was slavery.

But 'owning' a child wasn't considered slavery; a parent either 'had' or 'did not have' a child. One could not distinguish this in any other terms but these.

Or something like that.

Karei saw it all a different way, however. Karei was headstrong, resentful, beautiful, conceited. She was special, because in the face of hardship she could continue on. She was smart, kind, sexy, loving. She was special, because no matter what she _would_ continue on.

If this wasn't a hardship, what was it?

Kagome and Souta stay each night in her room; the summer would be a long one. She refused to go to school and leave him. He refused to leave her side as well, but she was half supporting him on her shoulder half the time. If she left his side for more than a second, he grew paranoid and he would scream and panic, call out her name.

The sound of his petrified voice filled her and it made her feel like she was losing her mind. Her relationship with her friends didn't just slowly fade away, it just died instantly as she lost the will to be around or talk to anyone else.

Souta couldn't talk at all, except to scream her name, and 'mama', and 'dad'. The days flickered on and only Karei's will to keep them alive, and her hatred of them for their weakness and breaking, kept them eating. She would force them to sit at the table, their eyes growing ever duller, their souls shattering further. To Karei, it was torture to watch them fading.

The rapid decline wasn't healthy for them, she knew. But Karei made the two come to court every day as she worked on bringing them under her care. In the depths of her mind, she knew she wasn't qualified to take them in; they were broken now.

She also knew that it wasn't right; something was amiss. How likely was it that her parents had taken a road so far out in the middle of nowhere to get to the airport, when their home was just a mile away? Kali might have taken that road since it was somewhere between the airport and the shrine, just a milestone to cross over, but a usually deserted road anyway.

Kagome and Souta were not seeing this. They were not seeing that if they didn't start fighting, Karei would lose her remaining family to a system that was just _wrong_. Soh-A-Tech could not just take in all the orphaned children, especially if there was still family left who could take care of them.

Scratch that; _Nokugami, Haru_ could not just have all that power. Something wasn't right with the world. Something had upset the balance of power that was supposed to remain intact.

And when Kagome and Souta's friends came over to give their regrets and condolences to the two neither would speak to the friends who cared so deeply for them. Kagome would not even talk to Kohaku, and he had ascended three enormous steps of stairs while refusing help from his sister to do so, just so he could be before Kagome and be rejected with a silence that ate away at his insides like a parasite.

Neither of them were even fighting for themselves or trying to preserve their well-being and sanity.

Karei was _worried_. She couldn't remember a time when she had been so scared for the two. Before she knew what had happened, Karei found that the time she was devoting to care for Kagome and Souta had cut severely into her social life. And even though she found this sacrifice to be a small one, there were others.

Her relationship with her boyfriend seemed to dim. They both attempted to keep up the pretense of their relationship, but soon the battle for Kagome and Souta's well-being and sanity and adoption and care became too great for the woman who _only wanted to dance_ in the first place. She couldn't keep trying, trying to pretend that she and her boyfriend didn't have this giant rift between them, and that rift, that chasm as wide as the sea had two names: Kagome, Souta.

Even when she and her boyfriend broke away from each other, it was still perfectly okay with her, though it hurt a little. As long as she could continue to fight for custody of her cousins, she was okay with it. She poured money from her own savings, and from the money she'd inherited as her parent's only beneficiary.

She poured until the entire bank account was nearly air-dry in her hands. Before the summer had ended, Kagome and Souta would not speak at all and walked around like lost children, holding hands, holding each other, dying in a mute noise together. Their eyes did not speak of anything by the time fall came. They were as dead and dying as the rest of the bodies and minds.

Then, one day, Karei fell to her knees before her cousins and sobbed into her hands. Is there nothing I can do for them? She wondered. They stared blankly at the television screen that had collected dust, curled up together on the rocking chair as if they'd shrunk, or the chair grew.

Karei realized that the latter was impossible, and the former was terrible. The two had lost so much weight; their eyes dead, their faces gaunt, their limbs bony and the veins on their necks showing blue. Their clothes hung on their forms even more now than before, though not many would realize that since they'd always worn baggy clothes.

Again she wondered why she cared. She questioned herself like she had thousands upon thousands of times that summer. Why did she care? Why couldn't she just let Soh-A-Tech take them, if they wanted?

But no matter how deep Karei resented the two siblings, family did not abandon… it was something that could not be done. No matter the grievous hatred that broiled just beneath the surface of Karei's skin for Kagome and Souta, for the strength that they had always had and she never did, Karei could no longer find that hatred in her soul. She could not understand herself, but she did also not want to.

She wanted Kagome and Souta to wake up. She wanted to have her parents back, to have her Aunt and Uncle to not be dead. She wanted _so much_ that she could not have, that watching Kagome and Souta kill themselves was breaking her as well, slowly killing her; roasting her in a dying fire. And she was fighting two losing battles; fighting for custody against the richest, most prosperous, most devilish man the world had ever seen, and fighting for their safety and sanity.

So the next day, Karei hugged the unresponsive Kagome, kissed the cheek of the detached Souta, and left them locked in Kagome's room. They would not leave it without prompting anyway, and she could not bring herself to inflict the final blow to ensure that no one, _no one_, could enslave them into another family's custody.

Perhaps they would just simply wane into non-existence if she left things that way? Perhaps if they did go to Soh-A-Tech, they would be happy. Perhaps slavery was too strong a word. Perhaps it would not be to abandon them if she gave up. But she could not live with herself, and she was _sane._ She _knew_ this had to be done. She _knew_ that if she did it, everything would be over.

She walked throughout the shrine, closing and locking every door. After all, it would not be right if she did not. It would not be right to leave doors open for anyone to walk in. Finally at the front of the house, at the gate, she closed and locked the heavy iron barred gates that had only ever been for decoration.

She walked up the stairs of the shrine, feeling her lips moving but not hearing what she was saying. She could hear the slow, comatose breaths that her cousins dragged in through their lungs, even though she was several hundred feet away at the entrance to the shrine, and they on the third floor in Kagome's room.

She could feel their statuesque eyes piercing her heart as she moved ever closer to impending doom. She could taste the lack of emotions that filled their soul on her tongue and it left a dry feeling in her mouth, yet made her feel like she were chewing on slimy, uncooked bread dough. She could see them holding each other tight, neither more sure of themselves than a dead newborn.

She could smell their state of unrest, fogging her nose and her senses, making her head reel and her heart pound wildly, yet with the sound of their breathing so loud in her ears as she drudged ever closer to the inner courtyard of the shrine, up the few steps to the shrine, she could not hear her heart pounding, and the feel of their dead stares kept her from feeling her heart as it begged to burst from her chest.

In… out… They breathed, and she stepped into the kitchen of the shrine. Kali used to have a maid, but Karei had dismissed her at the beginning of the summer, right after Kali's death. Now only Karei had seen the inside of the kitchen. In… out…

Then her feet carried her forward even further, through the kitchen to a servant's hall. After so much remodeling, and a burst of European influence, some of the design and décor of the shrine resembled more of a European castle than a real shrine. The walls were not made of paper, but instead sturdy stone.

Onward she went, through halls and corridors that blurred so much she could only wonder if she was running, though deep inside her she knew she was walking so slow that the dead would pass her by, laughing and waving.

A door opened before her, but she wasn't sure if she opened it. She couldn't feel or see herself do it. The impression of knowledge surrounded her and she knew she was in the giant, two-story library, filled with ancient texts, scrolls, tombs, and modern books and magazines.

The first spark of reds, oranges, blues, greens, violets… it started to rise; she couldn't smell the smoke.

She didn't know that, when things started crumbling, when the gasoline trail she wasn't aware she'd lain led to the rest of the shrine, going up and down stairs, in and out of rooms, when it started to light up and the wood walls of the shrine burned but the stone ones did not, she screamed. She couldn't feel, hear, taste, sense, or see her screaming. She couldn't feel, hear, taste, sense, or see herself, drenched in oils and gasoline and all things flammable that she didn't know she'd bathed in that she was on fire.

She thought only one thing, and this she knew with all of her heart as the world all around her razed to the ground, 'There is nothing I can do for them, except this…'

**End.**


End file.
